magic bullet; ❛ WONDERLAND ❜
❝ who the fuck is octavia? ❞

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Alice did not do commitment. Not anymore, at least. Catching feelings for someone could only end in her getting hurt. She thought that because she could never imagine someone genuinely loving her. People thought they loved her, when in fact they only thought she was attractive. In the end, she knew that everyone was going to leave her. So, she never got too attached. Not even to her actual boyfriend which only proved her right after cheating on her with the first girl who was willing to spread her legs for him.

Even when it came to the friends-with-benefits arrangement that she had with Isaac, she knew that he probably didn't care about her feelings. He just wanted to get laid and she was fine with that because she was in the same situation. Despite how good the group date went, she doubted that she was ready for an actual relationship and Isaac never complained.

She chose to keep their interactions outside of sex to a minimum. So, when she woke up in the middle of the night to find Isaac still in her bed, peacefully asleep while their limbs were tangled up together, she did not bother to be gentle about waking him up.

Sneaking him in last night was risky enough with Jackson and her mother being home, she could not afford one of them walking into her room and finding them there naked.

"What the hell?" Isaac groaned when she hit him with her pillow repeatedly.

Alice narrowed her eyes at him in response, "Get up. It's, like, four in the morning. You were supposed to be out of here a long time ago."

"Shit." He cursed and hurried to his feet, instantly starting to get dressed, "I fell asleep."

"Obviously." She rolled her eyes and got to her feet as well. She put on an oversized purple t-shirt over her head. She turned around to see if Isaac was dressed only to find him putting on his belt with his shirt still sitting on the edge of the bed, giving her a chance to take in his bare chest.

For a guy who spent most lacrosse games on the bench rather than on the field, he looked better than most guys in their school.

"You checking me out?"

His words made her snap her gaze away from his stomach and towards his face, seeing a cocky smirk on his face. He was never that mouthy or confident in school and around other people. The fact that someone like Alice Whittemore actually wanted him gave him confidence.

"You wish." She deadpanned and made her way towards the door, ignoring the way his eyes trailed up her bare legs, "You can't go through the window since my mom parked her car under it. Walk through the front door but be quiet."

Isaac gave her a nod which Alice took as a signal to open the doors of her bedroom and he easily slipped outside.

"I'll see you on Monday, Gorgeous." With one last wink thrown over his shoulder, he was sneaking away and down the hallway.

Alice let out a quiet huff and moved back into her room. Just as she was about to close the doors completely, the doors of her parents' bedroom opened. She was going to brush it off, thinking it was just her mom going to the bathroom, until she heard her whispering something.

"Be quiet. The kids are asleep."

She could not stop herself from looking through the small gap in the door to see what was going on. Her mother was standing in her bedroom doorway in a red nightgown. The person standing next to her was what made her freeze.

An unfamiliar man with ruffled hair and a creepy smirk on his face.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart. No one will find out."

What the fuck?

-

Alice sometimes wondered if anyone would notice if she just stopped talking. If she sunk away from her group of friends and started sitting alone at lunch. Sometimes she was tired of being the center of attention every time she drove into the Beacon Hills high parking lot. She used to love it. She loved being able to make all eyes turn to her the second she walked into a room. Mainly because of the lack of attention she got from her parents, or more specifically her father. But eventually, she grew tired of it. She hated having to be perfect in order to keep the people around her like Lydia or Audrey satisfied. Alice had more important things on her mind than picking the perfect outfit to wear or dating a popular guy.

Her mother was having a fucking affair and frankly? She was freaking out.

It's not that she blamed her. Quite the opposite really. Her father was rarely home and when he was, he did not even bother to hide how big of a pig he was. Starting from the way he would check out other women when they were having dinners in the restaurant, and ending with all the screaming and crying that Alice would hear from the kitchen which would lead to her and Jackson having to sneak out of the house.

"So Scott's coming over tonight?" Lydia's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and brought her back into the conversation they were having with Allison.

"We're just studying together."

Lydia raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Allison's words, "Studying never ends with just studying. It's like getting into a hot tub. Somebody eventually cops a feel."

"Jesus, Lydia." Alice rolled her eyes and looked away from the two girls, her eyes widening at the sight of the guy that drove Allison away from the party a few weeks ago.

And according to Stiles; Derek Hale.

He was limping down the hallway without any color in his face and it did not take long for Alice to realize it probably had something to do with the fact that he was a werewolf. Which meant he was looking for Scott. Why else would a grown-ass man be in the middle of a hallway in high school?

Alice was not sure if he was there to kill Scott or ask for help.

Either way, she turned to Lydia and closed her locker shut, "You have fun giving Bambi a sex ed class, I think I left my phone in the Chemistry classroom."

She did not give her best friend a chance to respond and turned on her heel to try and catch up with Derek which was not that hard since he was incredibly slow. Alice took one last look at the now pretty much empty hallway and then did not think twice before grabbing the werewolf by the jacket, making him fall onto one of the lockers.

He let out a low growl and judging by the glare he had on his face, she realized she probably shouldn't have done that. But when his eyes connected with hers, his whole face softened and his mouth fell open in surprise.

"Octavia?"

Alice furrowed her eyebrows, caught off guard by both his words and the awestruck look he had on his face, "Who the fuck is Octavia?"

Derek opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by his own cough. He put a hand to his chest as his coughing increased and he ended up throwing up black blood right in front of Alice's feet.

The brunette gagged and grimaced, shaking off her disgust and turning back to Derek. She ignored his grumping and wrapped one of his arms around her neck, struggling to but still managing to lead him outside while stepping over the pool of blood.

"I'm gonna get you to my car and then I'm going to call Scott." She told him even though she was not even sure he was actually listening since his eyes were closed.

She ignored all the weird looks she was getting and made her way straight to her jeep. She was too busy making sure that Derek would not fall that she did not register the blue jeep making its way to her and Derek until it stopped a few feet away from them.

"Oh, my god." She heard Stiles exclaim and he looked out of the window at her with confusion written all over his face, "Alice, what the hell? You've gotta be kidding me. This guy is everywhere."

Just on cue, Derek stumbled out of her grasp and onto the ground and Scott ran up to them.

"What the hell?" The younger werewolf exclaimed and got down on the floor next to Derek to glare at him, "What are you doing here?"

Stiles got out of the car and the number of cars honking around them only increased when his jeep stayed put.

"I was shot." Derek told them.

"He's not looking so good, dude." Stiles stated and looked at his best friend with an annoyed look on his face, clearly completely unfazed and uninterested in what happened to Derek.

Alice blinked and gave him a deadpan look, "Yeah, because he got shot."

"Why aren't you healing?" Scott asked Derek with a panicked look on his face.

Derek let out a sigh, obviously in pain, "I can't. It was a different kind of bullet."

"A silver bullet?" Alice and Stiles blurted out at the same time, the latter clearing her throat after seeing the look of disbelief Derek was sending them.

"No." He rolled his eyes.

Scott looked down at the floor, furrowing his eyebrows in thought before looking back at Derek with wide eyes, "Wait. That's what she meant when she said you had forty-eight hours."

"What?" Derek visibly stiffened, "Who said forty-eight hours?"

"The one who shot you." Scott stated blankly and the second the words left his mouth, Derek flinched back in pain.

His eyes started glowing a lighter shade of blue and Alice's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Cool.

Scott, on the other hand, only got panicked more, "What are you doing? Stop that."

Derek glared at him, "That's what I'm trying to tell you. I can't."

The McCall let out a huff and grabbed him by the shoulders to lift him off of the ground. "Derek, get up."

Alice pinched the bridge of her nose and clenched her jaw in annoyance when the cars around them kept honking. She sighed and looked between Stiles and Scott, "Get him up and get him in the car."

"In my car?" Stiles gaped at her as Scott dragged Derek into the back seat of his jeep, "Why don't we take your car?"

The Whittemore sister glared at him, "You want to drag him through half of the school parking lot right now or do you want to get him out of here?"

Stiles opened and closed his mouth multiple times and threw his arms in the air dramatically. "Can I go with neither?"

Alice rolled her eyes and made her way to the passenger seat of the blue jeep, brushing past Scott who was bickering about something with Derek.

"I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Scott asked him.

"Cause she's an Argent." Derek snapped, making Alice narrow her eyes in confusion. "She's with them."

Scott glared at him over Alice's shoulder "Why should I help you?"

"Because you need me." The older werewolf told him, his words making Scott sigh in defeat.

"Fine. I'll try." He turned his attention to his best friend and the girl sitting next to him, "Hey, can you get him out of here?"

One of Stiles' eyes twitched in annoyance but he still started the engine, "I hate you for this so much."

"Don't take too long though." Alice told her newfound friend, "Because if he dies on my watch, I'm going to kill 𝘺𝘰𝘶."

Scott pursed his lips but nodded nonetheless. He knew that she was not joking. "Got it."

-

Alice wanted to kill Scott.

In any other situation, she would not hate being in the same car next to Stiles for half an hour but with Derek's intense glare burning the back of her head 𝘢𝘯𝘥, the fact that there was about sixty percent chance that he was going to die in the next thirty hours ── possibly under her watch ── did not exactly make her feel at ease.

Her anxiousness was obvious because when Stiles' phone flashed with a message from Scott, she hurried to see what he said.

Scott: need more time

Alice huffed and put the phone back down. She turned to look at Stiles, who had his eyes locked on the road, and said, "He says he needs more time."

"Come on." Stiles groaned and then looked at Derek through the rearview mirror, "Try not to bleed out on my seats, okay? We're almost there?"

"Where are we even going?" Alice asked him, just then realizing that they never fully discussed their plan.

Stiles sighed under his breath, "His house."

"What?" Derek perked up from the backseat, "You can't take me there."

The Stilinski boy let out a scoff of disbelief, "I can't take you to your own house?"

Derek immediately shook his head, "Not when I can't protect myself."

Alice let out a long sigh and leaned back in her seat as Stiles clenched his jaw and parked on the side of the road.

"What happens if Scott doesn't find your little magic bullet? Hm?" Stiles asked, turning in his seat, "Are you dying?"

"Not yet. I have a last resort."

Alice narrowed her eyes at the werewolf, not sure if she wanted to know the answer to her own question but asking it anyway, "What last resort?"

He ignored her question and rolled up his shirt sleeve, the action revealing a big bullet hole filled with blood. Alice scrunched her face up in disgust and immediately turned back the other way.

"Oh, my god!" Stiles exclaimed, mirroring the look on her face, "What is that? Ugh, is that contagious?" He pointed toward the doors without even looking anywhere other than the car parked in front of him, "You know what? You should probably just get out."

Derek clenched his jaw, "Start the car. Now."

Stiles gaped at him in disbelief, "I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look, okay?" He let out a humorless laugh, "In fact, I think that if I wanted to, I could probably drag your little werewolf ass out in the middle of the road and leave you for dead."

Alice pursed her lips and squeezed her eyes shut while Derek gave him an unwavering glare and said, "Start the car, or I'm gonna rip her throat out with my teeth."

The brunette girl raised her eyebrows and turned to give him an unimpressed look, while he made a point of avoiding her gaze and looking at Stiles. The boy pursed his lips and turned to start the jeep engine.

-

By that point, it has been almost four hours since they left the school and Scott still wasn't back. Stiles spammed him with a bunch of texts earlier but he only called him back now.

"What are we supposed to do with him?" Stiles yelled at Scott through the phone that was sitting between him and Alice.

"𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦." Scott responded on the other side of the line, his voice clearly ringing through the jeep because it was on speaker.

Stiles ignored his words and complained, "And by the way, he's starting to smell."

"𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 ── 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

"Dead corpse." Alice bluntly stated, growing tired of the situation altogether, "Just give us a place we can take him to because we can't take him to my or Stiles' house, and if I spent another ten minutes sitting next to his slowly dying corpse, 𝘐'𝘮 gonna find a bullet to shoot myself with."

Scott was silent for a couple of seconds before he responded again, "𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺. 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘤."

Stiles ran the palm of his hand over his face and asked, "What about your boss?"

"𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘹 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳."

"I can't believe him." Stiles muttered under his breath and passed Derek the phone so he could talk to Scott.

Derek took the call off speaker mode and put the phone to his ear, "Did you find it?" A pause. "If you don't find it, then I'm dead, all right?" Another pause and then, "Then think about this. The Alpha called you out against your will. He's gonna do it again. Next time, you either kill with him or you get killed. So, if you want to stay alive then you need me. Find the bullet."

-

Getting into the animal clinic Scott worked in was so easy Alice was surprised there were not any break-ins before. They easily got inside and Derek immediately sat down on a few bags of dog food ── Alice did her best to now snort at how ironic that was

Stiles stared at the new text he got from Scott and then turned his gaze towards Derek, "Does Nordic blue monkshood mean anything to you?"

"It's a rare form of wolfsbane." He informed him, "He has to bring me the bullet."

"Why?"

"Because I'm gonna die without it." Derek told him with a blank look on his face.

Alice swallowed and nodded toward the other doors of the clinic, "Get up, then."

All three of them walked into the main room and Derek instantly slipped off his long-sleeved shirt and moved towards the table.

Stiles grimaced at his wound again and said, "You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night's sleep couldn't take care of."

Derek ignored him and stared down at the veins popping out on his hand, "When the infection reaches my heart it will kill me." He walked away from the table and started looking through the cabinets while Stiles rolled his eyes.

"Positivity just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?"

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time, last resort..." Derek trailed off and pulled out a chainsaw that made Alice and Stiles' eyes widen, "You're gonna cut off my arm."

He wordlessly placed the chainsaw on the table while the two teenagers were stuck in their place, staring at him in shock. Stiles was the one to move first and pick up the chainsaw.

He turned it on but turned it back off a second later and let out a groan, "Oh, my god. What if you bleed to death?"

Derek tied the rubber around his forearm, "It will heal if it works."

Stiles let out a sigh and grimaced, "Look, I don't know if I can do this."

"Why not?"

"Well, because of the cutting through the flesh and the sawing of the bone and especially the blood!"

Derek squinted at the younger boy, "You faint at the sight of blood?"

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped-off arm!" Stiles shot back.

"I'll do it then." Alice's voice cut their argument short and made both of them snap their attention to her. She gave them a shrug, "What? All I have to do is take the chainsaw and cut his arm off. How hard can it be?"

"What? No?" Stiles exclaimed while shaking his head.

The werewolf let out a tired sigh, "All right, fine. How about this? Either one of you cuts off my arm," he gave Stiles an almost knowing look, "or I'm gonna cut off her head."

"Okay, you know, I'm so not buying your threats anymore ── "

Stiles' words were cut off when Derek grabbed Alice by the back of her jacket. The brunette tried to fight off his grip but failed due to his strength. She glared at him over her shoulder and deadpanned, "I told you I'd do it, asshat."

The second she said it, he let her go and moved away from her, throwing up black blood in the middle of the floor again. Alice jumped far away from him and to Stiles' side, who looked like he was going to throw up too.

"Holy god! What the hell is that?"

"It's my body," Derek panted, "It's trying to heal itself."

"Well, I don't think it's doing it too well." Alice commented, grimacing at the blood-stained floor.

Derek stood back up and looked at her, "Now. You gotta do it now."

"Does she have to?" Stiles chimed in, looking between the chainsaw that Alice just took in her hand and the wounded hand on the table, "Cause it's gonna traumatize me for life."

"Just do it!" Derek yelled, his aggressiveness making Alice swallow.

"I'm doing it, Jesus." She muttered under her breath and placed the chainsaw beneath the rubber band on Derek's forearm, trying to ignore Stiles muttering something under his breath.

She was just about to turn on the chainsaw when the sound of Scott calling her and Stiles' names caught her attention. Her eyes were wide when a panting and sweaty Scott showed up in the doorway. His now equally wide eyes moved to the chainsaw in her hands.

"What the hell are you two doing?" He exclaimed and Alice immediately dropped the chainsaw from her hands, her shoulders falling in relief.

Stiles let out a sigh of relief, "Oh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares."

"Hell, Scotty, I could kiss you right now." Alice muttered and moved as far away from the table, almost shaking.

Derek looked up at the Beta, "Did you get it?"

Scott moved his gaze from the brunette towards the fellow werewolf and then started digging around his pockets. He pulled out a small bullet and rushed to hand it to Derek who lifted it in the air and closer to the light to take a better look at it.

Stiles nervously drummed his hand on the metal table, "What are you gonna do with it?"

"I'm gonna..." Derek trailed off, dazed off, and then dropped the bullet and fell down on the floor next to Alice's feet. The bullet flew under the table and through the floor. While Alice crunched down above Derek's head with wide worried eyes and checked his pulse, Scott threw himself on the floor to try and reach for the bullet.

"Derek, wake up." Alice nervously and gently slapped the side of his face. When he did not react, she slapped him again but harder. "Come on, wake up."

Next to her, Stiles was completely freaking out, "Scott, what the hell are we gonna do?"

"I don't know!" His best friend yelled back, "I can't reach it."

Alice swallowed, her nerves making her feel like she was gonna throw up, "Scott, he's not waking up."

Stiles' pacing and ranting did not help one bit, "I think he's dying. I think he's dead."

"He has a pulse, idiot." Alice snapped and then slapped Derek again but he was not budging so she did the first thing she could think of and pulled out her lighter. She turned it on and placed it on the surface of the skin on Derek's cheek, the burning sensation making him snap his eyes open a few seconds later.

"I got it! I got it!" Scott immediately yelled the second Derek woke up and moved to help him get to his feet.

Derek tore the top of the bullet with his teeth and tapped it against the table, making some sort of powder fall out of it. He grabbed Alice's black lighter and used it to set the powder on fire and some sparks flew around from the small fire. Derek gathered the powder again and threw it at the wound, the action making all three teenagers flinch and grimace.

The older werewolf let out a pained scream as he rubbed the powder into the wound. He let out a grunt and fell to the floor, repeatedly screaming to himself until the wound just disappeared and the room was filled with silence.

"That was awesome! Yes!" Stiles broke the tense silence, his words making Rory raise an eyebrow while Derek gave him a deadpan look.

Scott gave Derek a concerned look, "Are you okay?"

"Except for the agonizing pain?"

Stiles smirked. "I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health."

His words only made Derek glare at him so he slowly backed away.

"Okay, we saved your life, which means you're gonna leave us alone." Scott exclaimed towards him, "You got that? And if you don't, I'm gonna go back to Allison's dad and I'm gonna tell him everything."

Alice let out a scoff of disbelief and gave him an unimpressed look, "You mean you are going to go back to the 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧 hunter? While you're a literal 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧? Scott, are you really that stupid?"

Derek nodded in agreement and turned to Scott, "You're gonna trust them? You think they can help you?"

"Why not?" Scott asked while looking between Alice and Derek. His eyes settled on the latter and he added, "They're a lot freaking nicer than you are."

The Hale let out a humorless scoff and nodded "Yeah, I can show you exactly how nice they are."

"What do you mean?" Scott tilted his head and Derek slowly picked his shirt up from the floor, only turning around to respond when he put it on.

"You're coming with me." He told him and then turned to Alice, "You can come too." When Stiles raised a hand and opened his mouth to say something he cut him off before he could say anything, "You can't."

Alice shook her head, "I think I'll rather go home." Then she turned to Stiles and nodded toward the door, "You coming?"